BETHELEHEM, Pa. – Competing in the strongest race of the day, the IUP men's cross country team finished in 18th place of 27 teams in Lehigh University's Paul Short Run on Friday.
 
The Crimson Hawks finished ahead of several Division I schools, including George Washington, La Salle, Xavier and East Carolina.
 
Sophomore Austin Cooper (King of Prussia, Pa. /Upper Merion High School ) paced IUP with a career-best 24:59 on the 8K course. He finished 52nd overall out of 278 total runners. Senior Ray Ofman (Armagh, Pa. /United) and junior Greg Beaudette (Johnston, R.I./Bishop Hendricken) also each set personal bests with times of 25:16 and 25:20, respectively.
 
Ofman finished in 74th overall while Beaudette crossed the line in 86th.
 
Senior Alex Hampel (Middletown, Del./Salesianum) was the fourth IUP runner coming in under 26 minutes with a 25:23 and redshirt freshman Hutson Baumann (Ellicott City, Md./Centennial High School) was the fifth with a time of 25:56.
 
Also running were juniors Caleb Cordell (Erie, Pa. /McDowell) and Dalton Trump (Lancaster, Pa. /J.P. McCaskey), who finished with times of 26:37 and 26:39, respectively.
 
IUP was one of two Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) schools in the race, joining Lock Haven, which finished in fifth place. Five other conference schools competed in the Brown and White races, with a total of 105 schools competing across the three men's races.
 
The Crimson Hawks return to the course next weekend, heading to Pittsburgh for the Carnegie Mellon Invitational.
 
For up-to-date game information, visit www.IUPAthletics.com and follow IUP men's cross country on Twitter @IUPCrimsonHawk and @iuptrackNfield.